Labour Votes Against Renewing Contract with G4S

Last week the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee voted not to re-new its contract with G4S. This company has provided security at our Labour Party annual conference for some years.

LFPME strongly welcome this decision and applauds the NEC for doing so.

Chair of LFPME, Grahame Morris MP commented:

“This is great news. The role of G4S in the Israeli occupation of Palestine includes complicity in the detention of children and the torture of Palestinian prisoners, breaking international law in the process. The Labour Party has always stood for social justice, fairness and decency, this decision shows we will stand up and act ethically and responsibly when working with businesses”

G4S has been given a long time to desist from carrying out the contracts it has which lead it to beak international law and act unethically. However they have not done so.

Through its involvement in prisons inside Israel, G4S is complicit in Israel’s violations of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the transfer of prisoners from occupied territory into the territory of the occupier. This includes Palestinian children taken from the Occupied West Bank into Israel – ensuring it is next to impossible for their families to visit them.

Defence for Children International Palestine has published research showing that three in four Palestinian children detained by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank last year endured physical violence during arrest and interrogation. G4S helps to operate the Damon prison and others at which child prisoners are held and subjected to violence.

Palestinian human rights organisations such as Addameer have documented torture, including torture of children, and detention without trial are widespread in the prisons that G4S is helps to operate.

The Labour Party decision follows other organisations that decided to stop working with G4S such as the Gates Foundation; the US United Methodist Church, the largest protestant church in the US; the Scottish TUC and charity War on Want.

This decision follows the announcement earlier this month made by the European Commission that it is issuing new guidelines for the labelling of products made in Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian and Syrian land. Agricultural produce and cosmetics sold in EU member states must now have clear labels showing their place of origin.